The Senate Appropriations Committee will take up tomorrow the $3.5 billion foreign Assistance Act that the House of Representatives approved Thursday by only 11 votes over mainly conservative opposition in both major parties. The vote was 212-201 to provide assistance for the remainder of the fiscal year which ends June 30. The program is currently financed by a resolution extending foreign aid spending at the 1973-74 level.
Israel was allocated $324.5 million in economic assistance: $300 million in military aid of which $200 million are in credits, and $40 million for Soviet refugee resettlement. Egypt was granted $250 million in economic aid; Jordan $77 million in economic aid, $100 million in military aid; and $100 million was set aside for Middle East “requirements” but understood to be for Syria.
Several Congressmen spoke up strongly for support to Israel while critics of the bill never mentioned Israel. Their criticism was directed at the entire spending program at a time of economic stress at home and for helping nations hostile to America, Rep. Garner Shriver (R. Kansas) struck a general note of support in urging that Congress “give our Secretary of State the leverage he needs in his current attempt to secure a more peaceful climate in the Middle East.”
In opposing the bill, Rep, Robert E, Bauman (R.Md.) pointed to American unemployment and double digit inflation and assailed those who are in favor of “appropriating sums for countries in the Mideast that are raising our oil price, for countries in South America that are hijacking our boats, and for other countries who are aiding our enemies to fight against us.”
CONGRESSMEN DEFEND ISRAEL
Rep. Harold E.Ford (D.Tenn.), a freshman Black Congressman from Memphis, said “Israel is our only consistently dependable ally in the Middle East and a bulwark against Russian penetration of that area. We must continue to provide an umbrella of financial strength for this courageous country so that it can continue to deal with confidence in the negotiations so important to world peace.”
Many Congressmen in approving the bill spoke warmly of Israel. Rep. Otto Passman (D. La.), the appropriations subcommittee chairman who engineered the legislation, outlined the funding for “our one very real ally, Israel.” Urging passage of the $665 million for Israel, Rep. Clarence Long (D.Md,), declared:
“For those who might think this is too much for Israel, let me remind them that Israel’s adversaries have been getting much more foreign aid from many donors, including the United States.” Long observed that Israel is receiving only “approximately one-third of what the three confrontation Arab countries–Syria, Jordan and Egypt–have been getting in aid from all various sources, including the United States, the Soviet Union and the Arab oil producers.”
Rep. Charles A. Vanik (D.Ohio) pointed out that in the current negotiations, “Israel will require not only assurances from Egypt but assurances from our own country that she will be able to maintain the capability to deter future Arab aggression.”
Vanik observed that “it should be clear that the Arab states will never enter into a peace agreement with a weak Israel, one they feel they could defeat militarily. it is also true that a weak Israel will be unable to take the risks involved in negotiating with her adversaries. Israel desperately needs the funds authorized to maintain her defense, to assist her strained economy, and to ease her unprecedented economic burdens.”
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